ITHACA, N.Y.– Eastern University Women's Volleyball saw its magical season come to an end with a hard-fought four-set loss to the sixth-ranked New York University Violets in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Hannah Pringle led the Eastern attack with 19 kills.

After dropping a tight first set, the Eagles (28-4) rallied from a 14-11 deficit to claim the second set 25-20.

Logan Martin hit the line on a hard slide to stop an NYU run with a sideout, and  Viviana Fragoso delivered back-to-back aces to tie the score at 14-14. Martin had a kill for a 15-14 lead and it looked like the Eagles had a two-point lead when a line judge ruled a Pringle kill in, but the top judge overruled the call and awarded the point to the Violets. Unfazed, the Eagles picked up a sideout on another kill from Martin and Elle Jiron-Bujanda forced a pair of NYU timeouts as she served the Eagles to a 21-16 lead.  Trinity Gruber  and Bridgette Kelly each served for points for the 25-20 win.

"We knew they were big and physical," Head Coach Mark Birtwistle said of the Violets. "We had to be physical and attack back. For the first two sets were able to do that."

Martin had four kills in the second set, and Kelly had three. The Eagles hit only .179, but the defensive effort kept the NYU attack to only 12 kills and a .111 hitting percentage. Grace Casagrande had nine on her 22 digs in the second set. With that number, she became just the second Eastern player to reach 600 digs in a season. She finished the year with 615.

The Eagles were within a point at 12-11 in the third set, but the Violets were successful on six of their final seven serve-receive chances and scored enough points on serve to pull away to a 25-18 win. The Eagles hit just .073 against the big NYU defense.

"They passed really well and were a little more aggressive with their serving in the fourth set," Birtwsitle continued, "and we were not able to match their physicality."

The Violets (31-4) hit .484 and were successful on 11-of-14 sideout chances in the fourth.

For the match, Grace Cooper had 13 digs, and Jiron-Bujanda finished with 38 assists. Kelly had six kills, three blocks, and an ace.

Haley Holz led NYU with 19 kills, and Lindsey Hirano, the Violet libero had 30 digs.

The loss snaps a 15-match winning streak. The Eagles dropped two games on the first weekend and have gone 26-2 since. NYU will play the winner of the match between Babson and Ithaca for a chance to play in the Elite Eight in two weeks.